1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and an information providing medium and, more particularly, to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and an information providing medium that change, according to inputted image data, motions of a displayed object and sounds to be generated.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional sound reproducing systems include a record player, a reproducing device using an optical disc, and a cassette tape recorder. These sound reproducing systems reproduce sound data recorded in advance on a recording medium.
Recently, users not satisfied with the simple reproduction of recorded sound data are increasingly turning to so-called computer music in which, for example, music is played by use of hardware and software and played music is recorded on a recording medium. Computer music also involves the automatic play of musical instruments. In the automatic play, recorded MIDI (Musical Instruments Digital Interface) sequence data for sound reproduction is supplied to a sound generator for sound output.
The above-mentioned computer music is based on a personal computer. Music is played and automatic performance is executed by operating the mouse, keyboard, touch panel, and other man-machine interfaces provided by the personal computer. Consequently, the performance of computer music requires input devices that the user can operate directly with the hand. This makes the above-mentioned computer music systems unsuitable for the enjoyment of live performance for example in which performers and audiences enjoy music by moving.
Generally, playing music and execution of automatic performance require special knowledge and techniques. Therefore, the practice of computer music requires specialists. Amateurs can only listen to reproduced music. However, some amateurs desire to arrange music on their own in a simple way.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to generate a sound and achieve changes to the motion and shape of an object displayed on the screen by changing the image sensed by a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) video camera for example.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus including an image-sensing means for sensing an image of a subject, an extracting means for extracting predetermined feature data from the image sensed by the image-sensing means, a setting means for setting sound data to be reproduced and a reproducing means for reproducing the sound data set by the setting means according to the feature data extracted by the extracting means.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method including the steps of image-sensing an image of a subject, extracting predetermined feature data from the image sensed in the image-sensing step, setting sound data to be reproduced and reproducing the sound data set in the setting step according to the feature data extracted in the extracting step.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information providing medium for providing a program readable by a computer for making an information processing apparatus execute processing including the steps of image-sensing an image of a subject, extracting predetermined feature data from the image sensed in the image-sensing step, setting sound data to be reproduced and reproducing the sound data set in the setting step according to the feature data extracted in the extracting step.
According to the invention, an image of a subject is sensed, predetermined feature data is extracted from the sensed image, and sound data is reproduced according to the extracted feature data. This novel constitution allows the user to arrange music only by executing simple setting operations.